


Good Ol' Family Christmas

by littlebirdtoldme



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 11:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2848790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebirdtoldme/pseuds/littlebirdtoldme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This takes place somewhere between the end of the war and Jake et. al. going off on the blade ship. It’s an AU where both Tom and Rachel survived the final battle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Ol' Family Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Animorphs Secret Santa 2014, for dances-with-angels, organised by JustAnotherGhostWriter. Merry Christmas!

Rachel leant against the doorframe, scowling. “Really? Christmas? Why can’t we just have it at home, with ourselves? The last thing we need is more stress.”

Her mother pursed her lips. “Perhaps, but you also need to... _we_ need to work on rebuilding this family. The fact that we are all still alive and well –”

“For the most part,” Rachel muttered. Naomi’s eyes narrowed, and she continued.

“The fact that we are all still alive and well is something that needs to be celebrated. I thought you would be excited to spend the holidays with your cousins!”

“Oh, because I hardly ever see them? Mom, the last few years I have spent fighting with one cousin and against the other, and you expect me to snap back to normal? What am I supposed to say – ‘Oh hey Tom, now that you’re not trying to kill us, could you pass me the stuffing?’ It’s ridiculous!” Rachel turned on her heel, ignoring her mother’s calls after her, and slammed her bedroom door shut, before throwing herself onto her bed, seething. How could her mother expect her to just put all this behind her, to pretend none of this would happen?!

But Rachel knew where she got her stubbornness from: her mother’s resolve would not shift. Come Christmas day, Rachel sat stony faced at the table across from Tom, whose plastic smile faltered every time he caught her eye. She managed to avoid conversation with Tom almost all day, much to her mother’s disappointment and Jake’s cautious glances. When opening her presents, Rachel got away with no more than a mumbled thanks to her cousin, who by this point was struggling to hide his disappointment. Eventually, the older boy had had enough.

He looked at Rachel, who was sitting on the sofa, absorbed in some book she’d been given by a friend – or at least, pretending to be. He walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder: she jumped violently.

“Hey kid,” he said softly. “Can we talk?”

Rachel twisted where she sat to study Tom’s face. She saw nothing but sincerity, but she had spent so long mistrusting this face, she couldn’t help but believe she was missing something.

“Don’t really know what there is to say, in truth.” She shrugged and turned back around, feigning interest in her book once more.

Tom sighed, and walked around to kneel in front of her. “How long do you plan to keep this up?”

“Keep what up?”

“This! Ignoring me! Pretending I’m some – some monster!”

Rachel echoed her cousin’s sigh. “Tom, I... That’s just it, though. I’ve learnt to not trust you. You _were_ ‘some monster’, and I had to change my thoughts about you to fit with that. Don’t expect me to snap instantly back into old-Rachel mode, because that Rachel is dead,” she snapped.

Tom’s eyebrows flicked up briefly. He hadn’t expected the outburst, however brief. “Thing is, I’m still adjusting, too,” he admitted. As he spoke, Homer came loping in, tongue lolling out of his mouth. He rubbed his head against Tom’s side, and the boy took the dog’s head between his hands and scratched his ears. Homer’s eyes closed in bliss.

“Even this,” Tom continued, nodding at Homer. “When I wasn’t... When I was infested, Homer avoided me like the plague, you must have noticed. It took him a while, but we’re back to normal.” He met Rachel’s eyes. “I hope that given time... You can at least stand to be in the same room as me.”

Rachel spread her hands out. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Tom rolled his eyes, and Rachel felt a sudden pang of the years she had lost of knowing her cousin.

“You know what I mean,” he said with a half smile. “I mean... It is _Christmas_ , after all. Do you think we could start over? Whether that means talking through the things that happened in the war, or forgetting all about it... I just want my cousin back.” Rachel looked at Tom – actually, properly looked – and saw him in his own eyes. So long she had seen nothing but an enslaved body controlled by a parasitic alien, that she almost didn’t know her cousin at all anymore. She took a deep breath.

“I suppose that’s why we started fighting in the first place,” she admitted begrudgingly. “No promises, mind. I’ll try, that’s all. Don’t expect this to happen quickly either, alright?” Her guard was up once more, and Tom couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“My god, that war changed you,” he said sadly. “But that... That I can work with.” He smiled, the first full, true, honest-to-God smile that Rachel had seen on his face in far too long. He held out his arms and, without even thinking, Rachel fell into them, holding her cousin close.

“Merry Christmas, cuz.”


End file.
